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#academicfreedom — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #academicfreedom, aggregated by home.social.

  1. "We turn now to new revelations from a former Justice Department attorney who’s filed a whistleblower complaint claiming that the Trump administration task force charged with investigating antisemitism pushed universities into massive settlements despite turning up little to no evidence of antisemitism on campus.

    Haley Van Erem, a former career attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in her complaint that the government’s probes into schools like Harvard, Brown and Columbia were, quote, “an unlawful process designed to achieve predetermined political goals.”

    Brown University settled for $50 million. Columbia settled for $200 million. Harvard refused to settle, and a judge threw out a case against the university.

    Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, has launched a probe into the whistleblower allegations. He wrote in a statement, quote, “It has been apparent that its investigations have been structured deliberately to harass and intimidate rather than protect anyone from discrimination.”"

    democracynow.org/2026/8/21/ant

    #USA #Antisemitism #Zionism #Israel #Universities #Trump #AcademicFreedom #Trump #Columbia #Harvard #HigherEd

  2. "In 2023, 60 per cent of Australians rejected a constitutionally recognised Voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. A body that could only make representations, only on matters concerning the people whose ancestors have been here sixty thousand years.
    "Too much, the No campaign shrieked. Division. Privilege. Special treatment.
    "Nine months later, Anthony Albanese handed Jillian Segal what the Voice never dreamed of asking for. Not a right to be heard. Power. No election. No parliamentary vote. No hearing. A three year commission reporting personally to the Prime Minister, with a mandate reaching into every campus, newsroom, classroom, gallery, charity, arts contract and visa file in the Commonwealth."

    Andrew Brown writes: michaelwest.com.au/the-segal-s

    #academicFreedom #influence #lobbying #policing #silencing #genocideSupport #hasbara #grievability #conflation #confusion #manipulation #proZionism #StandWithIsrael #lineOfColor #Australia #RoyalCommission #AusPol #JillianSegal #Segal #AnthonyAlbanese

  3. "Since the beginning of world-wide #campusProtests in the wake of October 7, 2023, there has been a tremendous upswell of organizing and support for #PalestinianLiberation and #activism against #USmilitarism. In response, a wave of #repression against students, staff and faculty on campus began in 2023 and accelerated after Donald Trump took office."

    MERIP welcomes Aslı Bâli & Darryl Li to discuss

    merip.org/2026/05/the-merip-po
    #Palestine #Gaza #USpol #studentProtests #censorship #academicFreedom

  4. "#MERIP’s Spring issue, #CampusPolitics#Palestine and the New University Order, comes two years after mass #studentMobilizations against #Israel’s genocide in Palestine reached their peak with #studentEncampments across the United States and Europe.

    "The issue takes stock of #higherEducation following this inflection point..."

    merip.org/issue-318/
    #Gaza #PalestineSolidarity #studentProtests #activism #campusActivism #higherEd #academicFreedom #USpol #EuPol #censorship #stateRepression

  5. The government is seeking information about #MedicalSchool #applicants from each of the past 7 years, including test scores, home ZIP codes & any familial relationships to alumni or ties to university donors. The #Trump admin also demanded copies of any internal messages at the universities about #diversity, #equity & #inclusion & any correspondence between school officials & pharmaceutical companies about admissions policies.

    #law #AcademicFreedom #education #privacy #MafiaState #science

  6. The government is seeking information about #MedicalSchool #applicants from each of the past 7 years, including test scores, home ZIP codes & any familial relationships to alumni or ties to university donors. The #Trump admin also demanded copies of any internal messages at the universities about #diversity, #equity & #inclusion & any correspondence between school officials & pharmaceutical companies about admissions policies.

    #law #AcademicFreedom #education #privacy #MafiaState #science

  7. The government is seeking information about #MedicalSchool #applicants from each of the past 7 years, including test scores, home ZIP codes & any familial relationships to alumni or ties to university donors. The #Trump admin also demanded copies of any internal messages at the universities about #diversity, #equity & #inclusion & any correspondence between school officials & pharmaceutical companies about admissions policies.

    #law #AcademicFreedom #education #privacy #MafiaState #science

  8. The government is seeking information about #MedicalSchool #applicants from each of the past 7 years, including test scores, home ZIP codes & any familial relationships to alumni or ties to university donors. The #Trump admin also demanded copies of any internal messages at the universities about #diversity, #equity & #inclusion & any correspondence between school officials & pharmaceutical companies about admissions policies.

    #law #AcademicFreedom #education #privacy #MafiaState #science

  9. The government is seeking information about #MedicalSchool #applicants from each of the past 7 years, including test scores, home ZIP codes & any familial relationships to alumni or ties to university donors. The #Trump admin also demanded copies of any internal messages at the universities about #diversity, #equity & #inclusion & any correspondence between school officials & pharmaceutical companies about admissions policies.

    #law #AcademicFreedom #education #privacy #MafiaState #science

  10. The #Trump admin has opened investigations into #admissions policies at 3 major #MedicalSchools, expanding the #federal govt’s pressure campaign beyond campus #culture & taking aim at the heart of #ScientificAuthority in the #US.

    The #DOJ on Wednesday informed #Stanford, #OhioState & #UCSD, about the investigations & demanded that the schools turn over extensive lists of #data by April 24 or risk interruptions to essential federal #funding….

    #law #AcademicFreedom #education #privacy #medicine

  11. The #Trump admin has opened investigations into #admissions policies at 3 major #MedicalSchools, expanding the #federal govt’s pressure campaign beyond campus #culture & taking aim at the heart of #ScientificAuthority in the #US.

    The #DOJ on Wednesday informed #Stanford, #OhioState & #UCSD, about the investigations & demanded that the schools turn over extensive lists of #data by April 24 or risk interruptions to essential federal #funding….

    #law #AcademicFreedom #education #privacy #medicine

  12. The #Trump admin has opened investigations into #admissions policies at 3 major #MedicalSchools, expanding the #federal govt’s pressure campaign beyond campus #culture & taking aim at the heart of #ScientificAuthority in the #US.

    The #DOJ on Wednesday informed #Stanford, #OhioState & #UCSD, about the investigations & demanded that the schools turn over extensive lists of #data by April 24 or risk interruptions to essential federal #funding….

    #law #AcademicFreedom #education #privacy #medicine

  13. The #Trump admin has opened investigations into #admissions policies at 3 major #MedicalSchools, expanding the #federal govt’s pressure campaign beyond campus #culture & taking aim at the heart of #ScientificAuthority in the #US.

    The #DOJ on Wednesday informed #Stanford, #OhioState & #UCSD, about the investigations & demanded that the schools turn over extensive lists of #data by April 24 or risk interruptions to essential federal #funding….

    #law #AcademicFreedom #education #privacy #medicine

  14. The #Trump admin has opened investigations into #admissions policies at 3 major #MedicalSchools, expanding the #federal govt’s pressure campaign beyond campus #culture & taking aim at the heart of #ScientificAuthority in the #US.

    The #DOJ on Wednesday informed #Stanford, #OhioState & #UCSD, about the investigations & demanded that the schools turn over extensive lists of #data by April 24 or risk interruptions to essential federal #funding….

    #law #AcademicFreedom #education #privacy #medicine

  15. A quotation from Henry Commager

    We do not need to fear ideas, but the censorship of ideas. We do not need to fear criticism, but the silencing of criticism. We do not need to fear excitement or agitation in the academic community, but timidity and apathy. We do not need to fear resistance to political leaders, but unquestioning acquiescence in whatever policies those leaders adopt.

    Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
    Essay (1965-12-18), “The Problem of Dissent,” Saturday Review

    More about this quote: wist.info/commager-henry-steel…

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #commager #henrycommager #acquiescence #agitation #apathy #censorship #criticism #dissent #intellectualfreedom #resistance #silencing #timidity #academicfreedom

  16. #RuthBenGhiat is a professor of #history & Italian studies at NYU & the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. She argues that this effort is part of a larger autocratic project to maintain #power.

    #SevenMountainMandate #law #Constitution #FirstAmendment #AcademicFreedom #dictatorship #authoritarianism #autocracy #MafiaState #RevengePolitics #Trump

  17. Joan Brugge has worked for nearly 50 years as a cancer scientist, studying the earliest signs that someone might become sick. Then the #Trump admin canceled her lab’s funding. The admin’s attacks on #medicine, #culture, & #education — which include verbal #threats & #funding cuts—are about more than just budgeting & bravado.

    #SevenMountainMandate #law #Constitution #FirstAmendment #AcademicFreedom #dictatorship #authoritarianism #autocracy #MafiaState #RevengePolitics

  18. And it raised new questions about whether some of were more interested in preserving the #power of the government’s threat against #Harvard as a message to other #universities than in reaching a settlement….

    While the interactions between Dr. Garber & McMahon plunged the sensitive talks into deeper turmoil, they also highlighted the unpredictability of the #Trump admin.

    #law #FirstAmendment #AcademicFreedom #education #SevenMountainMandate

  19. Whatever the case, it was the latest twist in the long-running dispute between #Harvard & the #Trump admin, which has shaped up to be the marquee battle in the admin’s effort to exert more influence over #colleges & #universities it views as too liberal.

    The episode also underscored the emerging role played by people inside the admin who want to extract more concessions from Harvard.

    #Trump #law #FirstAmendment #AcademicFreedom #education #SevenMountainMandate

  20. Dr. Garber wrote back to clarify #Harvard’s position. But, in response, the admin doubled down, introducing terms that were so far-reaching that #university officials saw them as nonstarters.

    It was unclear whether McMahon’s interpretation of Harvard’s proposal resulted from a miscommunication or from a deliberate effort to force the university into a year-end deal after months of faltering negotiations.

    #Trump #law #FirstAmendment #AcademicFreedom #education #SevenMountainMandate

  21. Dr. Garber felt he had made clear in recent negotiations that the university would not agree to pay the federal government to settle a monthslong battle with the #Trump admin over its perceived antisemitism on campus & other matters.

    But Ms. McMahon’s Saturday message said the opposite. In it, she thanked Dr. Garber for what she portrayed as his commitment to sending $200 million to the government as part of a deal.

    #law #FirstAmendment #AcademicFreedom #education #SevenMountainMandate

  22. The letter landed like a thud on Saturday in the inbox of #Harvard University’s president, Alan M. Garber.

    The message, from Linda McMahon, Trump’s “education” secretary, conveyed an understanding of an emerging deal between Harvard & the White House that flew in the face of the terms the #university had been insisting on.

    #law #Constitution #FirstAmendment #AcademicFreedom #education #SevenMountainMandate #dictatorship #authoritarianism #autocracy #MafiaState #RevengePolitics #Trump

  23. Since those talks started, the Depts of #Education & #HHS both opened challenges to the #university’s #accreditation, which could someday jeopardize the ability of Harvard #students to receive federal #StudentAid. And #ICE has served subpoenas to Harvard w/sprawling demands that included payroll records, years of disciplinary files & any videos #Harvard had of #InternationalStudents protesting on campus since 2020.

    #Trump #law #Constitution #FreeSpeech #AcademicFreedom #MafiaState #Autocracy